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Letter to the editor: Americans have incorrect perception of socialism

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It is about time that the American people were educated and informed about what true “Socialism” is and is not.

The fact is that in true Socialism, “the means of production” are owned and controlled by all of the people. In other words, in true Socialism all of the workplaces and businesses are owned, controlled, and run by all of the people for the good and well-being of all of the people.

They are not privately-owned by individuals and groups. In true Socialism, we would not be totally and exactly equal in terms of how much we get paid for our work, but we would be much, much more equal than we are now.

There would not be any billionaires or people who have hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of millions of dollars in total wealth, most of which they inherited and did not earn by their own labors. We would share what we have.

Those individuals such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who call themselves “Democratic Socialists” are actually ultra-liberal/progressive Democrats who believe that our federal government should spend more on social programs that help the poor, the near-poor (which is 100%-125% of the official poverty line), the lower-middle-class, the middle-class, and even the upper-middle-class because they also have financial struggles and problems especially when it comes to medical and health care expenses in their families.

They don’t advocate replacing our capitalist economic system with a truly socialist economic system. They support our capitalist system, but they want to have a capitalist economic system that has more federal government spending to help all of the people just as our traditional allies do more of than we do here in the USA.

Sincerely,

Stewart B. Epstein

Former professor of sociology, social work at West Virginia University